● Castenson reports on a collaboration that includes the Rocky Mountain Institute and the U.S. DOE's Building Technology Office to bring prefab manufacturing for housing "back to U.S. soil. Challenges aside, the possibilities are endless."

● Toussaint brings us three timber buildings in the U.K., Denmark, and Norway that "could represent the future of green architecture. Architects (and governments) are embracing the material and finding innovative ways to use it."

● Wainwright reports on a nonprofit organization that is helping Mongolian nomads (over 60% of the capital city's population!) "adapt to big city life" with a "yurt-inspired hub that's fixing their culture shock," designed by Hong Kong-based Rural Urban Framework (RUF).

● Moore takes on China's "banning knockoff buildings that might bring a renaissance in Chinese architecture" + "Proof of the permanent derangement wrought by the U.K.'s property market" now that home sales can restart - "it can now be more difficult to see members of your own family than prospective buyers and sellers of property."

● Mark Foster Gage explains the influence of Gothic architecture on his proposed 102-story supertall in NYC: "The reason we undertook this seemingly odd endeavor was to try to find a cure for the bland and featureless modern glass-box - a shotgun wedding between the abstract glass boxes and the intricate vertical structures of the Gothic."

● Report from Venice (translated): "There are chasms opening" along the under-water walls of the city, threatening the foundations of homes and palazzo," documented by volunteers and environmentalists who are rowing through the canals" - the "scars have come to light, thanks to a May with no traffic" and lower than usual tides.

● A temple in Turkey built 6,000 years before Stonehenge, "reveals architectural planning may be older than we think" - until now, "it was assumed that architectural planning methods such came about much later in history."

● The 2020 Trust for Public Land ParkScore index evaluates park access and quality in the 100 largest U.S. cities (#1: Minneapolis) + "Parks and the pandemic" report addresses "the challenges and changes that the pandemic poses to America's parks and open spaces."

● Belgium's Biennale Interieur 2020 becomes Biennale Interieur 2021: "The world will look different in a post-covid era" by October '21 (we hope!).

Winners all:

● The five recipients of AIA's 2020 Upjohn Research grants of up to $30,000 "will research reducing energy use and carbon in buildings."

● Miles of winners of the 2020 NYCxDESIGN Awards, announced in a virtual ceremony hosted by Interior Design mag and ICFF ("NYC's Shining Moment": Statue of Liberty Museum by FXCollaborative & ESI Design).

● The Daylight Award 2020, sponsored by the Velux Foundations, goes to Finish architect and designer Juha Leiviskä, British neuroscientist Russell Foster, and Lifetime Achievement to U.S. architect, writer, and photographer Henry Plummer.

● Architect Nili Portugali's "And the alley she whitewashed in light blue" wins the Inca Imperial International Film Festival's Best Experimental Feature Award.

COVID-19 news continues:

● Holland delves into how "urban planners are already adapting our cities to lockdown. But will the changes last - epidemics can have radical and unexpected effects on architecture and design - which more radical design proposals will shape the post-pandemic city?"

● FIU's D'souza takes a fascinating dive into "time, space, and adaptive reuse in the age of social distancing - could thinking of 'time' as an essential design strategy benefit architecture"?

● Caulfield talks to more than a dozen industry pros re: "preparing for re-occupancy" of office buildings "amid the coronavirus. Making workplaces safer will require behavioral resolve nudged by design" + links to useful guidelines and tool kits (one from Congress's bipartisan Member Problem-Solving Caucus - will wonders never cease!).

● AO's Bruce Greenfield offers "an architect's perspective" on hospitality design after COVID-19 - "new features will become a central priority for every guest and meeting planner."